Placelogging : mobile spatial annotation and its potential use to urban planners and designers

With the rise of 'Mobile 2.0,' digital telecommunications are beginning to provide deep resources of information to mobile city dwellers. Particularly striking among recent applications is placelogging, defined here as the practice of digitally annotating physical places with user-generated text and media accessible onsite to other mobile users. Placelogging presents potential as a means of engaging citizens with each other and with their environment, as well as distributing authority over defining what Kevin Lynch called "the image of the city." But as an emerging practice, its uniqueness as a mode of communication distinct from other forms of spatial annotation has not yet been proved. To investigate the uniqueness of placelogging, the thesis first establishes a taxonomy of spatial annotation through which to consider the different forms, functions, and trends in official adoption of a wide range of annotating media. Next, annotations made through various media, including placelogging projects [murmur] and Yellow Arrow, are catalogued in two neighborhoods each of Toronto and New York City. A preliminary methodology is defined to analyze and compare trends in distribution, placement and content of annotations.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Kottamasu, Rajesh

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lawrence J. Vale.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39847

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39847